COLUMBIA, SC – On Friday, United States Attorney Beth Drake announced two people pleaded guilty to fraud.

According to the press release from 48-year-old Urban Oshea, II of Florence and Madgelyn Kirton, 31, of Myrtle Beach, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture and pass counterfeit securities.

A judge accepted the plea and will impose sentence after he has reviewed the presentence report from the U.S. Probation Office.

The release says from August 2015 through January of 2016, Oshea, Kirton and others were involved in a conspiracy to manufacture and pass counterfeit checks. The co-conspirators would make counterfeit checks using genuine bank account and routing numbers they obtained from checks they stole out of mailboxes in Horry and Georgetown Counties.

The defendants would then use fraudulent driver’s licenses bearing their photographs but in other persons’ names which matched the names on the counterfeit checks, to pass these counterfeit checks at various businesses.

Oshea and Kirton would use the checks to purchase merchandise at one store, then they would go to another store in the same chain and exchange the merchandise for cash.

The maximum penalty is imprisonment for 5 years and/or a fine of $250,000, plus a special assessment of $100.

The case was investigated by agents of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Assistant United States Attorney A. Bradley Parham of the Florence office handled the case.